Josh Koscheck: “I remember being in the hospital begging for morphine.”

Lost in the build for UFC 135 has been welterweight contender Josh Koscheck’s recovery from a severely broken orbital bone suffered nine months ago at the hands, literally, of 170-pound champ Georges St. Pierre.

The American Kickboxing Academy staple recently spoke about the injury, providing graphic detail on exactly how bad it was, as well as how he spent his time on the sidelines and how he sees his fight tonight at UFC 135 with Matt Hughes will go.

“It was definitely a horrible injury,” the polarizing pugilist explained in an interview with the UFC. “I remember being in the hospital begging for morphine. It would wear off and I’d be like ‘hey nurse,’ – I’d track down anybody I could (and ask) ‘Hey guys, can you shoot me up again? The pain’s coming back.’”

However, as painful as the damage may have been, Koscheck revealed he never once thought about quitting in his fight against GSP and wouldn’t even do so when looking back on the bout.

“Us as fighters, we go and we want to fight no matter what. I felt that if I could just get one good one on his chin, I felt like I could put him to sleep,” the 33-year old explained before playfully adding, “But it was a tough fight. My depth perception was way off. I remember at one point, I took a shot and I wasn’t even close to him. He was like ten feet to the left. But it is what it is, and I just tried to grind out the fight.”

As far as why he’s so amped about fighting Hughes, Koscheck again referred to the former champion’s past behavior.

“When he was on top, it was said that he wouldn’t give any of the AKA guys a shot at him. He didn’t want to give us an opportunity and he called us all kids and was totally disrespectful. But this isn’t a personal fight, this is just a fight that the fans wanted to see for a long time, and now we’re getting the opportunity to do it.”

Koscheck elaborated on putting his emotions aside, saying he still viewed Hughes as a threat even if he’s coming off a first frame knockout loss, saying, “This guy has been training for a long time for Diego Sanchez, and I think everybody can be dangerous.”

Regarding the fight’s outcome, “Kos” concluded, “In the sense of getting knocked out by (him), I don’t think that’s gonna happen, but I definitely think he has the potential to get a submission or takedowns, so he’s definitely a dangerous fighter and I’m taking him very seriously. I’m going to have a great gameplan for this fight, I just have to stick to the gameplan, and I should come out a winner.”